By Twisting Light Signals into a Vortex, Researchers Create Fastest Wireless Connection Ever

By Clay Dillow Posted 06.25.2012 at 11:48 am 11 Comments

Sending Signals Via the Vortex Nature Photonics via ExtremeTech

By twisting radio waves into a threaded vortex, an international team of researchers has beamed data through the air at 2.5 terabits per second, creating what has to be the fastest wireless network ever created. Moreover, the technique used to create this effect has no real theoretical ceiling, ExtremeTech reports. That means--in theory--that an infinite number of these vortex beams could be threaded together to add infinite capacity to conventional transmission protocols.

These new, high-capacity vortex beams tap a characteristic known as orbital angular momentum (OAM). Right now, conventional transmission protocols like Wi-Fi or LTE modulate the spin angular momentum (SAM) but not the OAM. You can think of SAM as the spin of a signal, like a bullet (or a tightly spiraling football) twisting as it carves a direct path through the air. So to borrow ExtremeTech’s analogy, if SAM is the earth rotating on its axis, then OAM is its movement around the sun--not just rotation, but actual movement in space.

This new, previously untapped dimension of movement allows engineers to still manipulate SAM while layering OAM on top. Researchers from Tel Aviv University in Israel, the University of Southern California, and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory were able to twist together eight different beams of visible light using OAM resulting in 320 gigabytes per second of data transmission. That’s roughly seven Blu-ray movies per second.

The researchers did that across just one meter, making the achievement somewhat lackluster from a practicality perspective. And given that optical data networks still have plenty of space to grow, it’s not a huge deal for fiber optics. But for wireless networks, the idea that we might be able to grow capacity indefinitely is pretty mind-blowing. The next step is, naturally, making this work across longer distances. Much more detail on OAM and the future of wireless transmission over at ExtremeTech.

[ExtremeTech]

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11 Comments

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Clifford Cannon

06/25/12 at 11:57 am

I don't know how fast it drops off after the one meter but imagine this for a private home wireless :)
I want

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Igot1forya

06/25/12 at 1:29 pm

I remember reading that one of the limitations to a "Star-Trek" style transporter system was the shear amount of data that would need to be transmitted. Other than the other obvious technical issues, I think it just got a little bit closer to being possible.

This would be wonderful if they can get this to market sooner than later. My wireless DSL at home sucks!

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Brian P.

06/25/12 at 2:44 pm

If they ever perfect this for cell phones, I'm going to need a bigger SD card!

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gizmowiz

06/25/12 at 2:50 pm

What this proves is that cable is a dead end--DSL via fiber optics will blow away cable in the years ahead if this technology is implemented into fiber optics.

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ghost

06/25/12 at 3:03 pm

this would make wireless internet extremely good, i wonder how they actually did it, trying this on the amateur level seems like a fun project to get into. now that the trail is carved it wouldn't be too hard to get into it!

to mars or bust!

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naitse

06/25/12 at 9:56 pm

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RemNWLCVbiA

that is no new... come one, SETI at dec 2009 watch the video...

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A-WALL

06/25/12 at 10:36 pm

Is that supposed to say, '32' gigabytes per second rather than 320? I don't think that 7 blue-ray movies = 320 GB. Anyway, it's fast either way!
Alexander Graham Bell had the same trouble with transmitting light signals over a large distance when he invented the photophone and it didn't take long to fix it so this technology may become practical sooner than you think!

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Adventurousmalk

06/26/12 at 8:34 am

<<...This new, previously untapped dimension of movement allows engineers to still manipulate SAM while layering OAM on top....>> Not quite: This is 'old news'. Work on this topic has already been published months ago:

www.nature.com/news/2011/110222/full/news.2011.114.html

Please, make some effort to get some sources sorted out.

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JediMindset

06/26/12 at 6:15 pm

looks like the milky way lol. sadly this will never hit the streets. big brother makes sure that civilians never get to use the best known technology.

"You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes." -Morpheus

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BeholdersEye

07/01/12 at 1:13 pm

You, guessed right, the MilkyWay Nothing more then a huge data transporter for higher intelligent beings...

So, how much solar energy have you used today?

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JediMindset

07/02/12 at 12:13 pm

@BeholdersEye,

or it(milky way) might just be a form of "dna" that we yet to understand.